1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to graphical user interfaces and methods. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods of a graphical user interface for accessing data.
2. Background Art
As electronic features increase and the availability of information becomes more prevalent, consumers are finding interactive guides necessary to navigate data. For example, consumers may use an electronic program guide to find their favorite television show, use a cell phone interactive guide to program their favorite ringtones, or engage a search engine to search websites on the Internet.
Available graphical user interfaces that act as interactive guides, however, may display information inefficiently. Existing solutions, such as electronic program guides and Internet directories, are two dimensional. As soon as the consumer drills down or across a set of information, the view of the information categories may be lost. Further, the amount of data displayed to the user may be too narrow. As a result, the user may miss relevant data.
Moreover, some existing solutions may block a large portion of the visible area on the screen of an electronics device, thereby eliminating useful screen space. For example, when searching Google, a consumer may be inundated with pages full of unrelated search results that fill the browser window. In another example, the electronic program guide may block a television screen with multiple windows of programs and programming times.
Cell phones, personal digital assistants, and digital devices with relatively little display area are constrained by limited interactive guides that attempt to manipulate large, complex sets of data with limited user inputs. The results have been inefficient, complex, and difficult for the consumer to use.